DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Description) Despite an apparently high level of
interest among adolescents in not smoking--two thirds or more of adolescent
smokers would like to quit, more than half have attempted to quit and nearly
three quarters report difficulty quitting cigarettes--effective smoking
cessation strategies among adolescents have not been identified. Moreover,
little is known about effective strategies to recruit adolescent smokers to
cessation programs. Clearly, the success of any adolescent smoking
cessation program is a function of both of these factors. One approach to
enhancing recruitment of smokers, which has not been applied in the
adolescent population, is the use of direct incentives.
We propose to conduct a randomized controlled trial to assess the
effectiveness of direct incentives to recruit adolescents to an innovative
smoking prevention/cessation program. Using the membership listing from a
large health maintenance organization in Minnesota, we will randomly assign
4000 adolescents to one of four recruitment conditions: 1) a token, prepaid
cash incentive, enclosed with the survey, 2) a somewhat larger cash
incentive, contingent on return of a completed survey, 3) entry into a
drawing for a large cash prize upon return of a completed survey, or 4) no
incentive. We will assess: 1) whether the use of incentives will
significantly improve the overall response rate, 2) whether adolescent
smokers will respond in greater proportion depending upon the type of
incentive they receive, and 3) whether the type of incentive received
affects the willingness of smokers to be contacted by a health professional
as part of the cessation intervention. We will also determine which
strategy , if any, is the most cost-effective.
We anticipate that learning more about what is needed to encourage
adolescent smokers to participate in such programs could eventually result
in higher quit rates if more adolescent smokers could be recruited and
exposed to cessation interventions.